Inquiring minds are looking again to Ireland where more devastating banking news is coming out. The WSJ is reporting that the price tage for saving the Emerald Isle’s banks is now estimated to be up to €50 billion—nearly $50,000 for every household in the Emerald Isle!

With doubts swirling about the solvency of the Irish state in early September, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan summoned a dozen senior government and bank officials to a conference room nicknamed the “torture chamber,” a nod to its history as a venue for painful meetings.

For two years, Ireland had poured money on a raging banking crisis, to no avail. Each estimate of the rising price of rescuing Ireland’s banks turned out too low. Mr. Lenihan needed to halt the drip-drip of bad news that was leading his country to ruin. “I want a final figure ASAP,” he told the group.

Two weeks later, the estimate came in: Up to €50 billion—nearly $50,000 for every household in the Emerald Isle.

But now, investors are betting the bill could be higher still and could reignite Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis. The unpopular government is bracing for collapse, and on Tuesday, Irish government bonds continued a week-long slide to a fresh record low. The debt is judged as risky as Greece’s was this spring just before that nation begged for a European Union bailout.